Happiness Is
by MyCedarChest
Summary: When the choices are to laugh or cry.


Happiness Is…..

It had been a disastrous mission. The Enterprise was now limping along on impulse power, at least 3 weeks away from the nearest star base and repair station. The crew was exhausted and cranky…the adrenaline rush from the battle that almost became the Enterprise's last had long since faded leaving everyone still on edge, their nerves raw.

Uhura and her team had managed to hot wire communications back on line by cannibalizing every working piece of their back up systems _plus_ a few parts 'borrowed' from engineering that she had so far been able to keep Scotty from knowing about. And she had hoped to replace his parts as soon as they safely reached space dock so Scotty would _never_ know. She had been working non stop for almost 30 hours now even though she may have fallen asleep with her eyes open a few times…but at this point she was too tired to know if she had really fallen asleep or not.

She knew that Spock had also been working without rest or relief in central life support in an area of the ship which had also taken on heavy damage during the battle. He had come up with some work arounds for the damaged infrastructure all of which so far had held up much to everyone's relief. She had managed only a few words of electronic conversation with him during the long hours as they both worked at their tasks. She missed him terribly.

Walking into the officer's mess hall she saw McCoy and Kirk sitting at a table which looked like it had been somehow spliced back together…a long crack down the middle of the table clearly visible. There were no other diners in the hall given it was the middle of the ship's night now.

She tiredly smiled at the sole cook in the mess hall; Chef Val who nodded her head back at her and quickly offered her a warm plate of what appeared to be some sort of stir fry to add to her tray. Uhura knew better than to ask exactly was this particular dish was. It was no doubt a cobbled up recipe of some kind. The food prep areas had taken on heavy damage during the battle too. But right now her undiscriminating stomach suddenly rumbled with hunger at the wonderful aroma of the food on her plate.

"Thanks, Val. This smells wonderful." She told the woman sincerely and she received a small grin in reply.

"My pleasure, Lieutenant." Val replied with a twinkle now in her tired eyes.

Uhura walked over and eased herself into the chair next to Dr. McCoy after making sure the chair was undamaged and wouldn't collapse under her.

Len looked like she felt as he sat at their broken table chewing his food tiredly, half bent over his plate. She noticed that three empty cups of coffee were next to his plate. He too had been working non stop. They had been very lucky that there were no causalities during the battle. Aside from hundreds of non-serious injuries, she knew that 12 of their crew were in critical condition in the main medical bay and that Len had no doubt been watching over them like the mother hen he was without any breaks.

Jim didn't look any better than Len. She knew that Kirk had been spending all of his time in Engineering helping Scotty in his attempts to repair the battered warp drive. They had come critically close to having to eject the core twice already and this fear had been helping to keep the stress level high on board as the Enterprise slowly made its way towards help.

"Gentlemen." She began forcing herself to put some cheerfulness that she certainly did not feel in her voice. "Mind if I join you?"

Jim smiled tiredly at her as McCoy looked up at her, his face screwing up to no doubt deliver a smart ass retort to her quite obvious question. But most unexpectedly his face suddenly eased into a small but weary smile. "By all means, Mrs. Spock."

"What no 'Mrs. Hobgoblin?" she teased him back. "Are you going all mellow on me, Len?"

McCoy chuckled under his breath. "Just too tired for multi-syllable words, I guess." He responded with another small grin.

They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes. Uhura focused on eating all of her food before it would have a chance to get cold. She had grown very tired of being cold in the past 30 hours as the ship's life support systems were being repaired.

"My grandma used to play this game with us grandkids whenever we had to hole up in the storm shelter back home." Len announced unexpectedly as he pushed his now empty plate away from him. "It was called 'Happiness Is".

"Happiness Is?" Jim asked bleary eyed as he put his fork down on his plate and reached up to rub at his right eye fitfully.

"Yeah, 'Happiness Is'." Len replied looking over at Kirk with a grimace. "It's a simple game. There's only one rule. When it's your turn all you have to do is tell the rest of the group what makes you happy, but you have to preface it with 'Happiness is… that's all."

Uhura smiled at Len. She had played a similar game with her Bibi when she was young. "Who goes first?" she asked him with a warmth of fond remembrance coloring her voice now.

"Alphabetical order of first names." Len responded turning his head to look at Jim visually prodding him to begin the game.

"O….K…" Kirk responded slowly. "Let me think here." He added looking up at the ceiling deep in thought. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Happiness is riding a hover bike at full throttle in a rainstorm." He finished up with a goofy grin looking from Len to Uhura and then back again outwardly pleased with his answer.

"OK, my turn." Len declared clearing his throat dramatically. "Happiness is sitting on a river bank watching my float on my fishing line bob up and down just before being pulled under by a big bass."

It was her turn now. "Happiness is running through the sand on a warm beach with a cool wind in my hair and the hot sun on my face." Closing her eyes briefly, she could actually feel the sun on her face now. She immediately began to feel better. Having a full stomach and reliving a good memory was pulling her up by her bootstraps now and reengaging her normally positive outlook on life. She needed this.

"Happiness is sitting in front of the fireplace with a _huge_ mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows." Jim stated with a huge grin. "Lots and lots of marshmallows."

"Happiness is a _gi-normous_ bowl of hot peach cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that's beginning to melt making you eat it even faster." Len spoke moving his right hand in an exaggerated scooping fashion.

Uhura could help but giggle at him as he smiled broadly at her. "Happiness is eating sweet potato cakes topped with coconut glaze and fried bananas until you have to loosen the ties on your pants because your stomach has grown too big!"

"Happiness is…holding two 6 week old puppies and having them lick your face until you just can't stand it anymore!" Jim laughed rolling his eyes upward as he leaned back in his chair, tilting it backwards slightly.

"Oh yeah?" Len began cutting his eyes towards Kirk before turning to look at her his eyebrows rising slightly on his face in mock defiance. "Happiness is riding a two year old filly bareback through a pasture with grass taller than your head on a cool summer morning with the smell of a coming rain on the breeze."

Uhura thoughts suddenly turned mischievous as the two men turned to her in anticipation of her continuing their game. "Well I know for a fact that happiness is giving Spock a shampoo mohawk."

The front legs of Kirk's chair suddenly hit the floor with a dull thud followed immediately with Len slapping both of his hands down on the table on either side of his now empty plate.

"Oh my god, Uhura, did you just say what I think you said?!" Kirk managed to get out as huge grin split open his face and his blue eyes seemed to dance with happiness.

"Dear lord, I will never look at the hobgoblin the same again!" Len added with a chuckle that quickly morphed into a full belly laugh.

Jim began laughing with him and after a few seconds his laughter began to build into a tear letting, side spitting one. Their laughter now infectious, she began to laugh with them. Kirk was now doubled over with his head on the table in laughter and McCoy had leaned back in his chair as he continued to laugh until he was almost out of breath.

She knew that she was telling them something relatively private, but she had a feeling that Spock would not mind given the circumstances. She was after all just being honest. And being with Spock in the shower _did_ make her happy…as well a few other things. But never mind those other things at the moment. They all needed a good laugh given what they had all been though the past few days.

As she rubbed at her eyes for the umpteenth time wiping away her hot, but very welcome tears, her com beeped at her. She was needed once again down in the sensor array. She shakily stood up with her tray trying her best to recover from her fit of laughter.

"If you will excuse me, gentlemen." She told the two men as their laughter began to subside.

Both of them quickly rose to their feet as she pushed in her chair. Len reached out and hugged her, mindful of the tray she held.

"Thanks, darling" he began looking down into her face after releasing her from his grip. "I, I mean _we_ needed that."

Jim then leaned over and kissed her respectfully on the left cheek. "Yeah _we_ did. Thanks." He said with a warm smile. "And we promise not to tell Spock you told us that." He added almost respectfully.

"What do you mean _we,_ Ke-mo sah-bee?" Len refuted with a smirk to Jim and a wink for her "I intend to call the hobgoblin out on this for sure."

As she walked out of the Officer's Mess she was positive that she would no doubt be hearing more about her 'happiness is' revelation, but at the moment she was far too _happy_ to really care.


End file.
